Target Wins Right To Its Name In Canada

Discount fashion retailer Target Corp. has settled a long-running legal dispute over the right to use the Target name in Canada.

Minneapolis-based Target is in the process of opening dozens of retail locations across the country, after a $1.8-billion deal last year to buy the leases from HBC-owned Zellers stores.

But reclusive retailing mogul Isaac Benitah moved through the courts to stop the launch. Benitah's companies, which include Fairweather and International Clothiers, have operated several stores in select locations across Canada under the name Target Apparel for several years.

The locations also use a logo similar to the U.S. company's bull's-eye logo.

On Wednesday, the two companies announced an agreement under which Benitah's companies will cease using the Target name by Jan. 31, 2013.

"This agreement will eliminate any potential confusion among Canadian consumers regarding Target Corporation's branding elements, store experience and merchandise assortments as it opens its first stores in Canada in 2013," the companies said in a release.

The court case was set to go to trial later this year, after an earlier court had ruled that the U.S. chain had no right to infringe upon a Canadian brand name that Benitah had licensed the rights to first.